Macroeconomic Vs. Resource Determinants of Economic Growth in Africa: A COMESA and ECOWAS Study

ABSTRACT

This study simultaneously investigates the macroeconomic and the resource determinants of economic growth in the ECOWAS and the COMESA regions. The objective of this study was to empirically ascertain which of the two determinant is key for growth in both regions. To achieve this, the pool mean group technique of analysis was adopted. Empirical findings from the study analysis suggest that long-run economic growth determination in the ECOWAS region, is more reliant on macroeconomic variables and not resource price. While in the COMESA, the impact of macroeconomic determinants on long-run growth is less. In addition, reliance on resource price for long-run growth in the COMESA is found to be growth decelerating. In the short-run, growth determination in the ECOWAS is highly responsive to resource price negatively, while macroeconomic determinants of growth are weak. However, findings for the COMESA region suggest that short-run growth is highly responsive to macroeconomic determinants negatively, and to resource price positively. Hence, for countries in both regions to achieve sustainable long-term growth, there is the need for improvement in their macroeconomic management.

KEYWORDS:

• Macroeconomic
• resource
• determinants
• economic growth

JEL CLASSIFICATIONS:

• E6
• N17
• N57
• O47

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samson Adeniyi Aladejare

Samson Adeniyi Aladejare is an academic staff in the Department of Economics, Federal University Wukari, Nigeria. His research interest includes public sector economics, applied macroeconomics, and energy economics.